Pain threshold in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and effect of manual oscillations

Using a pressure algometer pain threshold (PT) measurements were carried ou t in the paraspinal area as a ell as at the knee and ankle joints in 30 adu lts with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in 30 healthy adults. The gro up of RA patients was then randomly divided in two. In 15 RA patients a man ual oscillation technique was applied at T12 and L4 for 12 minutes. The 15 other patients were resting. Immediately after the experimental procedure t he PT was measured again at the same points in all patients. The RA patient s showed a significantly (p < 0.05) lower PT than the healthy adults at all investigated points, which suggests that in RA certain changes arise in th e peripheral and central nociceptive processing system, as mentioned in the literature. In the second measurement session for the RA patients the PT w as significantly higher (p < 0.05) after manual oscillations than after res t, at the paraspinal area of T6, L1 and L3. Further research into the long- term effect of repeated manual oscillation sessions is warranted.